Ancient Chinese Secret, Huh?

Laundry is an issue in New York City. Not only do we not have a washer dryer in our apartment, but there's not even one in our building for tenants to use. This means we have a few options when it comes to laundry:

1. Don't do any.

2. Gather up loose change and wash it ourselves at a local laundromat, all the while avoiding eye contact with "SCRAM Bracelet Lady", Lop-Sided Face, and Dog-Hating Visor Woman (all real people.)

3. Take it across the street to the magical Chinese laundry.

We went with Option 3.

In St. Elmo's Fire, Kirby vows to go "Fluff and Fold" once he hits it big. Actually, it's not expensive at all, and it's worth every cent to see how your laundry is transformed when you pick it up.

You know what laundry looks like in a laundry bag- it's lumpy and huge and hard to carry. BUT...when Poly Organic Cleaners is done with it, our laundry looks like this: (I've put my foot up against it to show scale.)

Inside this exquisitely wrapped package is ANOTHER package that looks like THIS:

It may not look like it, but inside this plastic cube are around 25 shirts (including t-shirts and tanks), 6 pairs of shorts/pants, about 10 pairs of boxers, 15 pairs of socks, and a couple of hand towels that got thrown in the wrong bag. Everything is folded perfectly, to the exact same size, and it's all shrink-wrapped.

As a cherry on the top of this Laundry Sundae, an autographed photo of Mr. Steve Martin hangs in the cleaners, alongside one of our yet-to-be-spotted neighbor, Mr. Billy Squier. Even the greats appreciate Poly Organic's Ancient Chinese Secret.